He had already brought the powerful
Algonquins and Nipissings into his scheme, and planted them at Two
Mountains as a bulwark to protect the city of Ville Marie. He had
created a great schism in the powerful confederacy of the Five
Nations by adroitly fanning into a flame their jealousy of English
encroachments upon their ancient territory on Lake Ontario; and
bands of Iroquois had, not long since, held conference with the
Governor of New France, denouncing the English for disregarding
their exclusive right to their own country. "The lands we possess,"
said they at a great council in Ville Marie, "the lands we possess
were given to us by the Master of Life, and we acknowledge to hold
of no other!"
The Abbe had now strong hopes of perfecting a scheme which he
afterwards accomplished. A powerful body of the Iroquois left their
villages and castles on the Mohawk and Genesee rivers, and under the
guidance of the Abbe settled round the new Fort of La Presentation
on the St. Lawrence, and thus barred that way, for the future,
against the destructive inroads of their countrymen who remained
faithful to the English alliance.
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